Chile: Lawmakers Request Dismissal of Top Justices Who Freed Pinochet Agents

Legislators of Chile’s opposition are seeking the dismissal of Supreme Court Justices Carlos Künsemüller, Hugo Dolmestch, and Manuel Valderrama for granting parole to seven convicted criminals against humanity and former agents of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1974 - 1990).

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With the support of human rights organization, the legislators presented Wednesday an Accusacion Constitutional (which roughly translates to constitutional accusation), a legal mechanism available to Chile’s Congress to hold high officials accountable for breaching the constitution and justify their dismissal or disqualification from holding public office.  

The accusation will be voted Thursday and if approved five legislators will be randomly selected to review the request.

In the official document submitted Wednesday, they argue the justices failed to review international convention on human rights law, and “enabling impunity.”

The presentation of the accusation was made by the Communist legislator and president of the human rights commission Carmen Hertz, and supported by members of Socialist Party, the Party for Democracy, the Democratic Christian Party, the Democratic Revolution Party, Humanists of Chile, the Social Green Regionalist Federation, and the Social Democrat Radical Party.

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“Today we are using a tool we are obliged to use because the international order has been undermined placing Chile in a vulnerable situation… Impunity in cases of crimes against humanity and genocide is forbidden in international law,” Hertz argued.

Lorena Pizarro, President of the Group of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared, told the press “Impunity carries a great risk, the repetition of the genocide. When you hear justices’ opinions that this is one branch of government meddling with another, the autonomy of a branch has limits and those limits are when a branch doesn’t fulfill its purpose. That is what the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court did.”

The chief of staff of President Sebastian Piñera’s government argued the move “gravely affects the rule of law and the functioning of democratic institutions.”

Piñera’s critics contend this argument is politically motivated. In the past, Piñera has defended dictator Pinochet and opposed attempts to judge him for crimes against humanity.